Computer Associates CEO Backs FY99 Net View $2.28/Shr
Dow Jones Newswires
By Maria V. Georgianis
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Computer Associates International Inc.'s (CA) Neugents technology will eventually be used by every Unicenter TNG customer, Chief Executive Charles Wang told Dow Jones.
The technology, shipping Tuesday, for the first time gives business computer users the ability to predict changes in system performance, such as crashes, according to Computer Associates.
Computer Associates' Neugents, or neural network technology, is initially working with the company's Unicenter TNG software running on Microsoft Corp.s (MSFT) Windows NT server software. Unicenter TNG allows businesses to manage the operations of their computer systems and software.
Versions of Neugents for Unix and mainframe OS/390 servers will enter testing next spring, Wang said.
"If it works as they have indicated, for the first time people running computer systems will be able to predict in advance that something will go wrong," said Paul Mason, a software analyst with International Data Corp. Mason said no other systems-management software has this predictive capability.
Computer Associates is the worldwide leader in systems-management software, with a 25.3% share of the market's revenue in 1997, the latest period for which data are available.
Wang said he is comfortable with the fiscal year 1999 First Call Corp. consensus earnings estimate of $2.28 a share. Last year, the company reported per-share earnings of $2.10.
He said revenue in the fiscal third quarter ending Dec. 30 will be divided almost equally between client-server and mainframe product sales. In Computer Associates' fiscal second quarter that ended Sept. 30, client-server revenue for the first time accounted for 50% of overall sales.
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